Expect the unexpected from Calgary's Ghostkeeper on new record

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When Sarah Houle and Shane Ghostkeeper contacted their record label, Victory Pool, about a new project they had been working on, the original idea was to temporarily rebrand themselves.

The sonically adventurous Calgary couple, who lead the experimental pop/art rock ensemble Ghostkeeper, had been working on some sound-design creations to accompany an interactive, multimedia art exhibit launched at Contemporary Calgary in 2020. It was under the name Cîpayak, a Cree word often used to describe the northern lights that literally translates into “the ghosts are dancing.”

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In their basement studio, the pair worked with their longtime engineer Brad Hawkins to create a sonic backdrop for the exhibit, which was called Four Words Challenge. It was haunting, experimental music. Even for a band as chameleonic as Ghostkeeper, it sounded nothing like Ghostkeeper. It led to soundtrack work for the couple, which included creating the score for Kaytlyn Turner and Justin Skrundz’s 2020 short The Mother and Berkley Brady’s 2022 psychological thriller feature Dark Nature. Ghostkeeper, Houle and Hawkins continued to work in that vein and eventually contacted their label about releasing the material under another name.

Victory Pool head Jesse Northey loved the work but was less enthusiastic about the rebranding.

“He said ‘Call it what you want for your next record and it’s just Ghostkeeper going on another tangent,’” says Ghostkeeper, in an interview from the couple’s Calgary home. “‘People will be used to that by now.’ So we moved forward and we wrote some pop songs to go along with it in the same immediate fashion.”

After that, the couple handed the tracks over to Jay Crocker, a Calgary expat producer and musician now living in Nova Scotia who used to perform with Ghostkeeper. Funnelled through his unique vision, it became something else again.

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“He completely rearranged and had his creative way with it,” Ghostkeeper says. “The result was even unpredictable to us but definitely very satisfying. He ended up taking it to another place that we didn’t realize it could be.”

It eventually became Cîpayak Joy, a shape-shifting collection of found noises, unique textures and hints of trap music and experimental pop that underline some undeniably beautiful melodies. The multi-layered creation of the project, and the record label’s confidence that Ghostkeeper’s fans would follow and embrace the new direction, shouldn’t be overly surprising to the band’s devotees.

Since its 2008 debut, Children of the Great Northern Muskeg, Ghostkeeper’s most persistent hallmark has been evolution. They have veered from the jumpy, driving alt-folk of their early work to the epic, heady ambition of 2017’s multi-layered dystopian concept album, Sheer Blouse Buffalo Knocks, to the relatively spontaneous beauty captured on 2022’s Multidimensional Culture, which found the band paying tribute to the couple’s Cree/Metis ancestors, culture and modern realities using a direct and soulful approach.

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Still, when Crocker finally returned the tracks to Ghostkeeper and Houle, the pair were a little taken aback by what he had done, particularly when it came to the effects on their voices.

“Working with Jay is funny,” says Houle. “It was like ‘Maybe he forgot all about us.’ Then, all of a sudden, this track was sent over and the first time hearing our voices with autotune was a bit jarring. It was like ‘Is that me?’ It took a few listens and we just decided to trust his choices. The tracks just grew on us so quickly and when I showed them to my nieces, they were like ‘Yeah, this is great.’”

One of the more unusual traits of the new sound is that it is occasionally hard to discern whether it is Houle or Ghostkeeper singing, which strengthens the blurry mash-up qualities of the record.

“Shane was the main writer and I was basically riffing off of him and in some recordings I would just match and sing along with parts he had written and Jay would take out Shane’s vocal for certain elements and it would be me singing as my Shane impersonation,” she says. “When I got the mix back and I was singing Shane’s parts, it was a bit jarring at first as well. I was expecting my voice to be a layer, not by itself. It took quite a few listens to get used to hearing my voice that way.”

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The band’s cinematic leanings can still be heard on the creeping-dread intro of debut single Lipstick, which initially sounds like it could have sprung from The Lost Boys soundtrack before morphing into spare, falsetto-sung soul-pop. Raven has Ghostkeeper delivering a largely spoken-word vocal over skittering beats. The slow-building Phantom mixed synth-rock leanings with an endearing melodic chorus, while Maps ends the album with haunting and wordless layers of choral/orchestral sounds. The album also uses samples from drummer Eric Hamelin and bassist/multi-instrumentalist Ryan Bourne, who perform with the band live, to deepen the sound.

Shane Ghostkeeper is from High Level, Alberta, but met Houle on the Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement, where he spent much of his childhood. His grandfather sang traditional Cree music and he began attending Indigenous ceremonies as a teen. Growing up in the settlement introduced both to a wide range of music, including Metis fiddle music, country and traditional Cree.

Lyrically, Cîpayak Joy covers some familiar terrain for Ghostkeeper. Many, like Lipstick, Phantom and Storm Chaser are love stories.

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“I always want to speak about Sarah and I’s origins, not only as artists but also as a romantic couple and the partnership that we have,” Ghostkeeper says. “I am trying to relay how grateful I am for the way Sarah and I are always challenging each other to face our inner demons and darkness and ego traps. I’d say that was an underlying thread to me. That way, I can stay immediate and be quick if I’m focused on that tight concept, which you’ll hear through almost every one of the songs.”

Beyond the new record, the couple continues to pursue other creative avenues. That includes visual art, but increasingly they have been exploring film. Ghostkeeper is an actor who has had roles in the APTN series The Secret History of The Wild West, the feature Faultline and a small role in Under the Banner of Heaven, while Houle’s experimental animated short, Circles, will screen at this year’s Calgary International Film Festival. The couple is also working on several short films together and developing a feature-length drama that they hope will go into production next year.

“I feel this is what Ghostkeeper has been building up towards forever, which is to try and write our stories, act in them and score them when making these films,” Houle says. “These long-term, larger projects are what we would like to focus on a bit more so we can get really in-depth with imagery and art and sound all together.”

Cîpayak Joy is now available.

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